Mothers protest immigrant children held in detention center in Florida

Sunday, May 12th 2019, 6:18 PM EDT

Updated:

Sunday, May 12th 2019, 7:09 PM EDT

By Alejandro Romero

SARASOTA - Members of the group Englewood Indivisible took to the streets to protest the imprisonment of immigrant children in Homestead.

Mothers, grandmothers, and great grandmothers spent their Mother's Day out in the hot sun raising awareness of the immigrant children held in detention centers here in Florida.

“What we’re doing out here today is we’re trying to call attention to the confinement of literally thousands of children in Homestead, FL in a privately run detention center,” said leader of Englewood Indivisible Jane Hunter.

Hunter is the leader of Englewood Indivisible, a nonpartisan group involved with the national indivisible movement opposing President Trump’s agenda.

“This is wrong that these kids should be free to reunite with their families, and they should be free to pursue their asylum claims. It’s really wrong to lock up teenagers," said Hunter.

Indivisible groups across the state are coming together in Homestead to hold a Mother’s Day march to protest detaining immigrant children.

“This is Mother’s Day and we know that there are parents who are longing to be reunited with these kids and these kids are very traumatize I’m sure waiting to be reunited with their parents,” Hunter.

According to Englewood Indivisible the detention center in Homestead, FL is currently holding more than 2,000 immigrant children. Ranging from ages 13 to 17 years old.

Susan Busko, Co-leader of Englewood Indivisible, says as a former high school teacher these teens are susceptible to these kinds of conditions.

“Teenagers are very vulnerable, they’re very fragile, there’s a lot of bluster involved in being a teenager, but they have very delicate hearts," said Busko. "I can’t even begin to think of what it is like to be separated from your parents, separated from your siblings, being really alone in a foreign country in conditions that are, you know they’re more, it’s not a college dorm that these kids are in, it’s like barracks.”

The group Witness Homestead has been monitoring the facility for more than two months and is looking to get the detention center shut down or become a government run facility.